Royal Hastings, University of London Multimedia Art MA Final Project

Candidate name: Patrick Bright

Candidate number: 0883480

As I come out the bathroom door I see Cameron. His back is towards me and his arm raised to hit Ludya. He has a hold of her other arm and she’s shouting and crying. Alyson is on the floor as if she’s already been thrown there. Jonathan is on the phone, shouting for someone. I see red. I don’t think. I grab the iron and smash Cameron over the back of his head. He falls to the floor. Ludya scrambles away and I see what Cameron was after. An old radio. Didn’t know it then, but I’d end up helping Jem tinker with it. It kept her occupied, stopped her asking questions about what happened on the trip.

We’re standing around Cameron’s body and in the silence I remember: ‘Oh no, Finny. Look, they are waiting on us. We’re done.’ They all look at each other: Jonathan, Alyson and Ludya. They look at each other and at Cameron on the floor, not at me. The only eyes on me are Cameron’s. They’re frozen, so wide open his lids have disappeared into his forehead. Jonathan takes a breath to speak, but his voice is drowned out – by something I’d heard once before.

It sounds like a thousand fingernails down a thousand blackboards. The same alarm that cut through the studio during our first assessment meeting, when Alyson burned Jonathan’s assignment. Back when we were all still putting our phones in the tray.

Ludya grabs it from Cameron’s pocket, her sleeve over her hands. The sleek, shiny screen flashes a warning. I glimpse the word ‘police’. Ludya squints sideways at it, like it’s the head of Medusa and she could very well turn to stone. I’d soon find out why.

‘Military-grade security,’ she shouts over the din, and she has a confidence that says she knows all about it. Doesn’t mean he is military, but it does mean he has access. ‘It needs to see his face! No one else’s!’ The sound is unbearable in my ears.

There’s a short tussle between Jonathan and Ludya as they try to switch the alarm off. Jonathan is adamant: ‘Cameron switched it off because Suzie switched it on that day in the studio.’ Suzie? In the fog of shock, I can’t get past this new name. ‘Suzie who?’ But they ignore me.

Ludya cries as she fumbles with the phone. Jonathan paces, covers his ears … I can only repeat the question, ‘Suzie who?’

It’s then that Alyson picks herself up off the floor, her face fixed in an expression I’ve never seen before, on anyone. She grabs the phone from Ludya and holds it in front of Cameron’s poor, dead face. Silence. A tiny click as the home screen lights up: a missed call from Angela Nathaniel and a timer in the top-right corner, shaped like a human face: five minutes and counting.

Metropolitan Police digital evidence log/Case no. 4617655/24/files retrieved 5 September 2024

AetherGen WhatsApp group members Ludya Parak, Suzie Danners and Jonathan Danners, 17 January 2024:

Ludya

It’s called ‘eco-cloth always-wipe’ or something – look in the glove box. IT DOESN’T SWITCH OFF.

Jonathan

Cameron must’ve turned it off at night, he wasn’t looking at it every five minutes. And he put it in the tray at RH. It was switched off then.

Ludya

He knew how to switch it off. *WE* DON’T KNOW HOW TO SWITCH IT OFF.

Jonathan

Fingerprint activation?

Ludya

Didn’t work.

Jonathan

Let the battery run down.

Ludya

That’s what I’m doing. FFS . Until then, it has to see his face every five minutes.

Jonathan

‘Eco-clean forever-wipe’. Coming back now. Will use rear door. Cameras at the front entrance.

Suzie

I’m going through his messages. You will not fucking believe this. We’ve been fucking set up. And that’s not all – Gela’s in on it. She’s been liaising with Cameron all along. They say, ‘Kiss-kiss’ all the fucking time!

Jonathan

Gela can’t possibly know what it means. It’s insider slang.

Suzie

She’s being paid ￡50k, and she’ll get the same again when the course ends. He was on the course to spy on us!

Jonathan

She’s getting ￡40k from us! She won’t need her job at RH. With ￡140k, that’s her retirement right there.

Ludya

We shouldn’t be having this convo on WhatsApp, FFS .

Suzie

I’ve replied to Gela as Cameron. Fucking RD 8! They KNEW who we were. They let us in.

Suzie

Cameron calls Mae ‘the boss’.

Jonathan

They must be able to track the phone. There’s no way he’s off-radar.

Ludya

Location services are switched off. He must’ve done that before he died.

Suzie

Can they still track it?

Ludya

We’ll soon find out.

Doodle message group [Private] Jem and Gela, 30 May 2024:

Jem Badhuri

I’m so upset about Cameron. It’s ruined the evening for me. I’ve texted my dad to pick me up early.

Gela Nathaniel

I’m upset too, Jem. We need to call the police, but not until after the presentation. Our client deserves their event to go well.

Jem Badhuri

If Cameron died in Somerset, why did Alyson disappear?

Gela Nathaniel

I really don’t know.

Jem Badhuri

Who told you he was dead? How did you find out?

Gela Nathaniel

Where are you?

Jem Badhuri

In the kitchen with the staff. A lovely waiter has given me a plate of canapés. He thought I was crying because I couldn’t find my way to the buffet. I’m stuffing my face, I’m so upset.

Gela Nathaniel

It’s safest if you stay where there are other people. When I can stand without feeling nauseous, I’ll come to you. But, Jem, promise me you won’t look inside the head.

Jem Badhuri

Why not?

Gela Nathaniel

They – the others – put something in it.

Jem Badhuri

Well, they’re determined to incinerate the head as soon as they can after the event, so whatever they put inside it will be destroyed too. What is it?

Gela Nathaniel

It’s nothing. Really. Just the old radio from Thorney Coffin. But don’t worry. I’ll call 999 as soon as my hands stop shaking.

Jem Badhuri

They’ve had it all this time and never told me? Well, they’ll burn it over my dead body!

Gela Nathaniel

JEM, STAY AWAY FROM THE HEAD.